Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox)
Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction was the last of the Robot Wars video games to be released. The version created for PC and Xbox was developed by Climax Group and released by BBC Multimedia in 2002. A separate version of the game was released for Game Boy Advance, but the gameplay, arenas and available robots differed greatly between the two versions. The PC version was also released in Australia in 2003 by Dataworks Australia. Arenas The game features eight different arenas, each with their own separate features and hazards. *'Robot Wars TV Studio' - The Robot Wars Arena featuring the Dropzone. It would appear that the arena is based upon the Extreme 1 version of its real-life counterpart due to the absence of the Disc of Doom, the placement of the Dropzone and some minor paint job differences. However, unlike the real-life Extreme 1 arena the Dropzone does function in the game. *'New York Subway' - A subway station with trains running through on either side and escalators. *'Japanese Rooftops' - A large rooftop with air vents, an electrifying generator and a glass skylight. *'North Atlantic Aircraft Carrier' - An aircraft carrier on the sea featuring aeroplanes, a pit, missile filled boxes and a catapult. Also had depth charges which, when pushed, shake the entire arena very violently. *'Sao Paulo Scrapyard' - A large scrapyard with a magnet crane and a crusher, however the magnet crane doesn't appear to work. *'Munich Car Factory'- A factory full of heavy machinery and a paint dipper, complete with welding machines and a furnace. *'Siberian Military Base' - A small base featuring landmines and a launching missile in a large pit. *'Mars Base' - A base on Mars featuring air locks and an anti-gravity switch. Features Buying and Building a Robot When the player starts the game, it is only necessary to buy or build a robot in Competition mode as all the currently unlocked robots are freely available without the need to purchase in Arcade mode. When the player starts Competition mode, the player is given 3500 credits to buy or build a robot, although only one of the available robots is cheap enough to buy at the start (Barrabis). When building a robot, it must have a chassis, power source, drive, locomotion and armour. It is also possible to fit all of these components together by purchasing a powertrain instead of a chassis at the start (but without armour). The player can then add non-compulsory weapons and extras to your robot before competing. Most of the components are locked at the start of the game and must be unlocked by winning the various tournaments. New chassis variations was also introduced like The Wreck's Half Cylinder 2, essentially the same body, Half Cylinder 1 (simply Half Cylinder in this AoD) that Electra and many others used but side ways so that it now acted as a rollover design. Battle Modes The game features two battle modes; Arcade and Competition. Arcade mode allows the player to jump right in and compete in various types of battles without the need to buy or build a robot. However, only the robots and arenas unlocked in Competition mode are available to use. Arcade mode features eight different battle types, which are: *Annihilator - A six-way melee in the arena. Interestingly, almost every annihilator in arcade mode will feature 3 TV series robots, and 2 fictional robots as the opposition. *Sumo - A one-on-one battle in the sumo ring, in which the aim is to push the opponent off the plinth to win. *Head to Head - A one-on-one battle in the arena (up to four robots can compete in the Xbox version). *Football - Two robots try to win by scoring as many goals as possible. Unfortunately, the CPU opponents ignore the ball and treat it like a regular battle. *Endurance - Seven opponents enter the arena one at a time and must all be defeated as quickly as possible. In Arcade mode, the opposition always consists of four fictional robots and three TV series robots. *Capture The Flag - The robots must try to carry the flag for as long as possible. The winner is the one that carries it for the longest time. *Mad Bomber - One robot starts the battle holding a bomb and must pass it to another robot by tagging it. If one robot holds the bomb for too long the bomb will explode and that robot will be eliminated, another bomb is then planted on top of another robot, and the process repeats itself until only one robot is left standing. *Collateral Damage - The robots must try to destroy as many objects as possible within the time limit. In Competition mode, the player must either build or buy a robot and compete in various different tournaments. The player wins more money and unlocks new components, robots and arenas by winning these tournaments. The tournaments predominantly feature regular battles (either one-on-one, melees or annihilators), but occasionally feature a Mad Bomber or Capture The Flag round. Interestingly, all melee battles within the game appear as a 'First Round Melee', regardless of where in the tournament the battle is fought. In total there are eight stages, each featuring a different number of tournaments. When all eight stages are completed, the player takes part in the Final Battle, which is an endurance battle against various real-life competitor robots and one house robot entering the arena last. Playable Robots and House Robots The game features many playable robots, most of which must be unlocked to use. The majority of the robots are from Extreme Series 1, but some of them do have features of their Series 4 appearances, and Panzer Mk 4 was only seen in Extreme Warriors Season 2. The real-life competitor robots from the TV series are: *101 *Behemoth *Chaos 2 *Diotoir *Dominator 2 *Firestorm 3 *Hypno-Disc *Panic Attack *Panzer Mk 4 *Plunderbird 5 *Pussycat *Razer *Suicidal Tendencies *The Revolutionist *Thermidor 2 *Tornado *Wheely Big Cheese This is the only video game to feature Refbot and also features the five original house robots; Sir Killalot, Shunt, Dead Metal, Sergeant Bash and Matilda. However, the game does not feature Mr. Psycho, Growler or Cassius Chrome as it is set during the first series of Extreme. Cheats Entering the following codes unlocks the following: If you entered the cheat correctly, a cow moo sound will play. Easter Eggs * Interestingly, if one creates a robot with the same name as a robot from the other console game that doesn't feature in Extreme Destruction, e.g. Hunchback, then during the stats screen before a battle, Jonathan Pearce's in-game introduction will be played when describing the robot, e.g. "Leaving the bell tower of Notre Dame behind, the Hunchback is here, and it's got the hump!", despite the fact that those robots didn't feature in the game. * If the pit button has not been pressed 1 minute and 40 seconds into the battle, the pit automatically descends; much like in the game: Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction. Glitches * Flashes of black will sometimes appear across the width of the arena from the moment of Activate. While only a visual issue, this can prove a distraction while obstructing the player's view of the battle. This glitch is also replicated in the minimap in the top left corner of the screen, and will often continue to the Bout Results and The Pits screens. * Jonathan Pearce's in-game commentary will not always match up to what is happening in the battle. Often sound clips will play that are completely irrelevant, such as deeming robots immobile when they in fact aren't. ** On top of this, he will often wrongly label weapons, such as calling Pussycat's blade a chainsaw. Patch and Demo One patch (1.115b) was released on November 22, 2002 for the PC version of the game that addressed a few issues that were in the initial release, mostly concerning support for various graphics cards: *Improve graphics support for ATI Radeon range including 8500, 9000 and 9700 cards. *Performance has been improved with nVidia TNT cards. *Compatibility issues with Matrox cards - G400, G450 and G550 resolved. Patched versions of the game have the text "Version 1.115b" in the bottom left-hand corner of the main menu screen. A demo version of Extreme Destruction was also released with the December 2002 issue of the UK PC Gamer magazine. It featured only a single battle: a six-way annihilator in the TV studio arena featuring Panic Attack (controlled by the player), 101, Behemoth, Diotoir, Plunderbird 5 and Wheely Big Cheese. Reception Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction received positive reviews. On aggregate site GameRankings, the game has a ratings score of 76.67% based on three reviews. Reviews of the game by AceGamez, Final-Level and Gamecell gave Extreme Destruction 7/10, 4/5 and 8/10 respectively. Cover Gallery File:Extreme Destruction Xbox.jpg|UK Xbox cover File:Extreme Destruction PC AU.jpg|Australian PC cover File:Extreme Destruction Xbox Australia.jpg|Australian Xbox cover EDall.jpg|The PC game with the disc and manual Extreme Destruction poster.jpg|Poster in Issue Two of Robot Wars: The Official Magazine, promoting the game Robotwarsextremedestruction advertisement.jpg|Advertisement for the game Credits *With thanks to: All at Robot Wars LLC and Mentorn *And special thanks to: Steve Carsey, Tom Gutteridge, Bill Hobbins, Stuart McDonald, Julian Fullalove, Chris Reynolds and Derek Foxwell *Game Commentary: Jonathan Pearce *Robot Wars theme tune published by Golden Break Music BBC Multimedia *Producer: Colin Fuidge *Localisation Manager: Lena Strand *QA Manager: Adrian Wood-Jones *Technical Manager: Kirsh Hirani *Product Development Director: Sarah Hennings *Director of Multimedia: Dave Lee ;And with special thanks to all the Robot Teams, without whom the programme would not be possible: *101: Mike Franklin (Capt), Amy Franklin, Steve Bickle *Behemoth: Anthony Pritchard (Capt), Michael Pritchard, Kane Aston *Chaos II: George Francis (Capt), Ian Swann, Richard Swann *Diotoir: Peter Redmond (Capt), Cairon Byrne, Joe Gavin *Dominator 2: Peter Halloway (Capt), Chris Hall, Elliot Smart *Firestorm III: Graham Bone (Capt), Alex Mordue, Hazel Heslop *Hypno-Disc: Dave Rose (Capt), Derek Rose, Ken Rose *Panic Attack: Kim Davies (Capt), Michael Davies, Christian Bridge* *Panzer Mk4: Todd Mendenhall (Capt), Valerie Mendernhall, Jim Hart *Plunderbird 5: Mike Onslow (Capt), Bryan Kilburn *Pussycat: Alan Gribble (Capt), David Gribble, Robert Bettington *The Revolutionist: Brian Nave (Capt), Michael Nave, Kenneth Bryant *Razer: Simon Scott (Capt), Ian Lewis, Vincent Blood *Suicidal Tendencies: Andrew Jeffery (Capt), Martin Jeffery, Charly Binns *Thermidor II: David Harding (Capt), Ian Harvey, Christopher Snowling *Tornado: Andrew Marchant (Capt), David Gamble, Bryan Moss *Wheely Big Cheese: Roger Plant (Capt), John McGugan, Murray Wharf Climax *Producer: Sarah Bain ;Programming *Lead Programmer: Will Baker *Programmers: Ewen Graham, Tony Mack, Simon Newton, Lee Reeves ;Art *Lead Artist: Kate Wright *Artists: Johnny Corbin, Paul Evans, Neale Williams ;Sound *Music and Sound Effects: Matt Simmonds ;Test *Lead Tester: Barry Martin *Testers: Brad Oakley, Gary Burchell ;Senior Management *Group Development Director: Garry Liddon *Managing Director: Joe Cavalla *Art Director: James Brace *Christian Bridge's name is shown in brackets for unknown reasons. Probably due to him joining the team via the competition in the Robot Wars Magazine Category:Video Games Category:Robot Wars Extreme Destruction